In the process of manufacturing liquid crystal displays, static electricity that occurs when the protective film of the polarizing film is peeled off has become a problem because it induces defects of foreign substance. Further, as the liquid crystal displays have become used in cellular phones and the like, display screens are often rubbed with a cloth for wiping off dirt during using cellular phone, and static electricity that occurs at the time can cause display distortion. In addition, for example, lateral field type liquid crystal cells (also referred to as In-Plane Switching type liquid crystal cells) have recently been used as wide viewing angle liquid crystal displays (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application No. H6-160878A (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,285)), however, these lateral field type liquid crystal cells are susceptible to static electricity, and, for example, when the protective film is peeled off after the polarizing film and the others are bonded to the liquid crystal cell in the process of assembling the liquid crystal displays, peeling electrification causes display distortion.
For methods of solving these troubles caused by static electricity, there are known a method of applying an antistatic agent to a substrate of cellulose resins, and, as its application, a method of using a polarizing plate (absorptive polarizing film) made by laminating a substrate of cellulose resin, to which an antistatic agent is applied, on a polarizer (refer to Japanese Patent Application No. H11-91038A).
Meanwhile, brightness enhancement systems using reflective polarizing films have recently been employed widely in liquid crystal displays (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application No. H9-511844A (corresponding to WO 95/27919)). The reflective polarizing film transmits certain polarized light and reflects polarized light having the opposite nature, and is used in such a manner that light reflected by this reflective polarizing film is returned to a light source device for reuse so as to increase the use efficiency of light and enhance display brightness. The reflective polarizing film is seldom used solely and is often used, mainly, laminated with an absorptive polarizing film. In this specification, a laminated absorptive polarizing film and reflective polarizing film are referred to as a laminated polarizing film. As this laminated polarizing film begins to be employed widely, it is required to take measures for the troubles caused by static electricity as described above.
For a method of providing an antistatic property to the laminated polarizing film, in the case where the absorptive polarizing film described in Japanese Patent Application No. H11-91038A is used as the absorptive polarizing film for this and is simply laminated on a reflective polarizing film, it is revealed that new troubles occur. The laminated polarizing film is bonded to a liquid crystal cell in such a manner that the absorptive polarizing film faces the liquid crystal cell. If an antistatic agent is applied to the outside of the absorptive polarizing film that constitutes the laminated polarizing film and is the surface causing static electricity when the mold-releasing film is peeled off (that is, if the antistatic agent layer is present between the absorptive polarizing film and the liquid crystal cell when the laminated polarizing film is bonded to the liquid crystal cell), defects such as bright spots occur in display. This is of insignificant level when the absorptive polarizing film is used alone, but in the case of the laminated polarizing film in which the reflective polarizing film is laminated, brightness is increased so that the nature of distorting polarized light, which is caused by the antistatic agent layer, can obviously be recognized visually.
That is, when the antistatic property is provided to the laminated polarizing film, it is inadequate to simply use the absorptive polarizing film using the cellulose resin plate to which the antistatic agent is applied.